Children's playground behavior: connections with social competence

Abstract

Achieving emotional competence depends on socialization. Especially in preschool, where children are introduced to a broader social group, interacting with peers is quite a challenge. Recess is the context which children naturally chose to foster their relationships. Yet, emotions can run high during recess and for some children it is difficult to adopt adaptive behaviors, ending up alone. To date, only few studies have tried to understand the course of social and nonsocial behaviors shown in the beginning of the school year. For example, it is unknown to what extent different forms of social play, e.g. physical play or pretend play, are related to later social skills, or whether nonsocial behaviors are related to more later solitude. Besides, given the importance of emotional competence within peer relationships, it is also important to examine the possible mediating role that children’s emotional competence might have in the pathway to later solitude. To address these questions we developed a study with 97 Portuguese preschoolers. Play behaviors were videotaped at the playground. Social solitude was assessed through an innovative measuring method, based on RFID devices. Emotional functioning (theory of mind, empathy, emotion understanding, aggression) and social skills were obtained through tasks, parent and teacher reports. The results showed that nonsocial behaviors were related to a general lack of emotional skills, which may explain the initial withdrawal. Solitary and social pretend play were related to later solitude and to lower ratings of social skills, contrary to physical play that was positively associated with social skills.